Cigar Aficionado’s Night To Remember

Last week our very own COO, Greg Fox, attended Cigar Aficionado’s Night To Remember, and it really was just that, a night to remember. Held at the beautiful Four Seasons restaurant in Manhattan, this popular annual event has raised millions of dollars over the years for the Prostate Cancer Foundation and has entertained a wide variety of celebrity guests.

Hosted by Marvin R. Shanken, editor and publisher of Cigar Aficionado Magazine, this year’s Night To Remember raised more than a million dollars for the Prostate Cancer Foundation. There were also some very distinguished guests and speakers at this year’s event including, Rush Limbaugh, Rocky Patel, New York’s former mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Carlos Fuente Jr., Emeril Lagasse, John Salley (famous professional NBA player), Facundo Bacardi of Bacardi USA Inc. and Jorge Padron, just to name a few.

Marvin R. Shanken has been hosting Cigar Aficionado’s Night To Remember for decades and has made it a priority to keep it classy with fine food, top of the line wines and of course, some of the best premium cigars around. The selection of cigars available was nothing less than impressive from high-end brands such as Ashton Cabinet, Aging Room Quattro F-55, Rocky Patel, Alec Bradley Prensado, La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amor Reserva and many more.

The black tie event was followed with a charity auction where guests were able to bid on a variety of handsome prizes. Among the auction items were four personal bottles of wine from Shanken’s wine cellar. The details on the wine were kept secret, so no one actually knew what they were bidding on until they won. According to Cigar Aficionado, the top bid was made by Rush Limbaugh, where he bid $70,000 on a 1990 bottle of Chateau Latour.

Other items auctioned off throughout the evening were quite impressive and raised a great amount towards a foundation that is seeking a cure for prostate cancer. A golf outing in the Dominican Republic went to Chuck Wagner, owner of Caymus wines, for $30,000. A round of golf with Rocky Patel in Naples, Florida, was auctioned off at $15,000 to Jamie Coulter. Clark Mandigo of Mandigo Investments won a suite at Yankee Stadium for the Yankee/Red Sox game this June. Mandigo and 22 guests are able to enjoy the game in luxury after his $20,000 bid won him the lot. Owner of Alec Bradley Cigar Co., Alan Rubin, won a membership to the exclusive Grand Havana Room private cigar club for a generous bid of $20,000. Rubin will be greeted with a personal cigar locker and a box of Fuente Fuente Opus X cigars.

Photograph from inside the dining area

Michael Milken, founder and chairman of the Prostate Cancer Foundation, has done a lot with the foundation and was thrilled to be at the event seeing so many prestigious guests come together to help raise money for a cure.

“In 1993, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and only given 12 to 20 months to live,” said Milken. “I’m very excited to be here 20 years later. It all started here, at the Night To Remember. And with the advancements of precision medicine, it will end here. In 2020, I’m projecting an end to prostate cancer.”